A Tour through Childhood

Curated by Unimelb, 2015

An activity for parents and their young children (up to around 10 years old), who may want to feel closer to or a stronger connection with their child. A child-led tour, the adult is made to see the world (or at least the streets) from the child's view, literally and figuratively. The child chooses the stops and by the end the parent may make stops in anticipation of the child's thought processes. Also suitable for multiple parent-child pairs - where the children decide collectively where to walk and stop. The aim is for the pair(s) to go home feeling closer and more connected, through shared thoughts and feelings.

These pages contains some possible stops a child may make for various reasons, and an adult's reactions to them, as the tour progresses.

the most likely stops, part 1

Naturally the child is likely to stop to look at cartoon-like pieces or those with child-related subject matter. For example, bright colours and characters as seen in works such as murals like this, with funny characters who seem to walk along the…

the most likely stops, part 2

… or subjects like a teddy bear (albeit a bit worse for wear), potentially on a very large scale. With a piece like this the parent may wonder why the child is drawn to it when it also has quite terrifying (the man’s face) or sad (the cat’s eye…

from the child's view

It is also expected that the child may notice things because of their height that an adult ordinarily would not spot, such as objects or works close to or even on the ground. This invites the parent to further believe that it is worth trying to view…

along the way

The adult and/or the child may also notice things along the way, at places or points of the tour that the child doesn’t necessarily stop at (perhaps interesting to either one, but not interesting enough for the child to stop). For instance, the sound…

parent's moment

As the parent finds themselves becoming more in tune with the child and its thoughts throughout the tour and maybe even able to anticipate where the child may stop next, they start to think more from their perspective, but with the adult’s own…

end goal

Another scenario that may hit hard, if a fair amount of time into the tour when parents are feeling particularly closely tied to their child’s thoughts and perspectives, would be coming across something like this. Being confronted by a memorial for a…